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University posts strong performance for FY17

Rob Messinger | November 2, 2017

Ohio State's investment portfolio earned a +14.5 percent return for fiscal 2017, placing it among the top quartile of university endowments for the year.

The market value of the Long-Term Investment Pool was $4.25 billion as of the June 30 end of the fiscal year. Since then, Ohio State has invested $819 million in proceeds from the Comprehensive Energy Management Project in the LTIP, bringing the market value to more than $5.15 billion as of Oct. 2.

Ohio State's investment team outperformed the benchmark for each major asset class in fiscal 2017, surpassing the portfolio benchmark of 11.9 percent by more than 250 basis points. The Long-Term Investment Pool is diversified among global equities (60.3% of the portfolio at fiscal year end), global fixed income (30.1%) and real assets (9.6%).

"Each dollar we generate in investment returns goes to support the university's mission," said Vice President and Chief Investment Officer John C. Lane. "By outperforming the market last year, our investment team generated more than $530 million in additional support for access, affordability and excellence."

The Office of Investments became fully operational in fiscal year 2010. Since that year, the university's investment team has produced an average annual return of 8.9 percent.

Update: Ohio State's performance in fiscal 2017 placed us well within the top quartile of college endowments for the year. The median for college and university investments for that year was 12.5 percent, and the top quartile did better than 13.7 percent, according to the 2017 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments.

The university's endowment was the 23rd largest in the country, according to the study, and the sixth largest among public institutions.